Generation V by M.L. Brennan

⇧ switch to KingsRiverLife.com for the full issue ⇧

Terrance McArthur

---

Details on how to win a copy of this book at the end of this post.

Fortitude Scott is a baby vamp, not grown into his powers. He isn’t sensitive to light, yet. He still drinks blood from his mother. He still cares about people as more than a quick lunch.

In M. L. Brennan’s Generation V, vampires aren’t immortal, just really long-lived (we’re talking centuries, here), and creating new vampires requires surrogates that you wouldn’t want to let out of a cellar. It’s an interesting rethinking of the vampire as the Great White Shark of the land, the apex predator with small numbers and low birthrates. Madeline is an exceptional vampire, with three children (if Fort can survive to full maturity).

Fort may not survive. He works in a nowhere-near-Starbucks-level coffee bar (because his college degree in film theory is useless), his girlfriend has sex with everybody but him (including his roommate, who doesn’t pay his share of the rent), and his vampire siblings refuse to take him seriously. He is the Doormat of the World.

When a European vampire comes to visit and little girls start disappearing, Fort is the only one who seems to be upset. Mom won’t do anything, because the serial bloodsucker is a guest, and the rules of hospitality are rules that must be followed. To keep her “little boy” out of trouble, she assigns a Japanese-American shape-changing fox (She’s not a human who turns into a fox; she’s a fox who can become human) to watch him.

Image source: Penguin

Sometimes his guardian gets him into more trouble than she gets him out of, but will she help him find the inner strength to stand up for himself and what is right?

An interesting subplot is the ex-cop investigator who is still obsessed with the one that got away, still trying to find out who killed Fort’s foster parents, and he may be figuring out things about the kid that may put his life in danger.

On the cover of Generation V, Fort is portrayed as a smoldering, yet casual, hunk. In the book, he comes across more like Woody Allen or a Jack Black with brains, a shmendrick with good intentions. The situations range from silly to revolting, but this could be the first step in a series worth following, if you can imagine a vampire-in-training that will make you laugh.

To enter to win a copy of Generation V, simply email KRL at life@kingsriverlife[dot]com by replacing the [dot] with a period, and with the subject line “V”, or comment on this article. A winner will be chosen May 18, 2013. U.S. residents only.




Terrance V. Mc Arthur is a California-born, Valley-raised librarian/entertainer/writer. He lives in Sanger, four blocks from the library, with his wife, his daughter, and a spinster cat.